QuickBooks is a small business-oriented accounting software with features for managing contractors, book management, and in-depth dashboard views to create business insights.
Pros
- Business Insights Dashboard
- A mobile app to store receipts
- Extensive integration library
Cons
- The plans are relatively expensive
- There is no free subscription tier
- No direct Slack integration
QuickBooks at a Glance
Best for: Small businesses that need an online accounting system
Price range: Starting at $12.50 for the basic plan
Key Features: Invoice, expense and contractor management
Applications: Web, Android, iOS
Integrations: Paypal, Square, Tsheets
QuickBooks Ease of Setup and Use
QuickBooks prioritizes the customer onboarding process. Those considering using the program for their accounting needs are advised to first contact the QuickBooks sales team, who can be reached Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time. Additionally, QuickBooks has put together comprehensive onboarding documentation that can guide customers through the setup process. QuickBooks is an intuitive and easy-to-use platform. The web user interface and mobile apps ensure that small businesses can update their accounts both from the office and on the go.
QuickBooks Pricing and Plans
Users can sign up at different levels, from the entry-level base plan to the advanced plan, which is suitable for more experienced users and includes up to 25 users.
Additionally, Payroll Core costs an additional $22.50/month plus $4 per employee per month for processing.
QuickBooks Features
Project Profitability Tracking
With QuickBooks, users can track the profitability of each of their projects. QuickBooks can pull in Costs and Expenses of Business (CODB) data to calculate the rate of return for each current project. For project-based businesses, this feature allows you to easily identify cost overruns and maintain profitability targets.
Real Time Inventory Tracking
QuickBooks supports real-time inventory tracking for organizations that sell online. Additionally, the QuickBooks website features an inventory tracker designed to prevent both understocking and overstocking. Customers can receive instant alerts on forecasted stock levels as soon as purchase orders (POs) are entered into the system. On-demand reporting makes it easy for businesses to quickly identify their best-selling products. Online sales reports can be synced with major e-commerce retail platforms, including Amazon, Etsy and Shopify.
General Ledger and Expense Tracking
Expense Scanning
Users can capture QuickBooks expenses by scanning and uploading them directly to the platform or emailing them to a custom address associated specifically with their account. After collecting receipts, users can categorize them in the system. In addition, QuickBooks uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to automatically determine the content of scanned receipts, including the payment date, vendor, payment method used, and amount paid. Charges can also be attached to issued invoices. This feature is useful for companies and freelancers who pay their clients for expenses incurred.
Billing and Invoicing
Bill Organization
QuickBooks supports invoice entry to track accounts payable as well as accounts receivable. With QuickBooks, companies can pay off outstanding balances by credit or debit card, as well as by bank transfer. All payment options can be operated from the user area. All paid bills are recorded and tracked through the system. Additionally, users can connect their bank accounts to automatically track and categorize both incoming and outgoing payments. The system also supports deferred bill payment to maximize cash flow.
Professional Invoicing
One of the key features of QuickBooks is, of course, the ability to create and send invoices. Using QuickBooks, users can:
- Apply theme customizations to match the layout and color scheme of your invoices to internal style and brand guidelines.
- Set up recurring invoices. This is perfect for businesses that pay customers in installments.
- Add billable hours. To simplify their import, users can integrate with Google Calendar or TSheets and import their recorded hours.
QuickBooks Integrations
QuickBooks supports a wide variety of integrations, allowing customers to do more with their online accounting platform by connecting it with other online services.
They include:
- Calendar and time tracking apps. QuickBooks can integrate with Google Calendar and Tsheets to automatically import time recorded on customer accounts and bill it to customers.
- There are also e-commerce connectors. One example is the BigCommerce QuickBooks app, which allows companies to automatically generate the documents they need to sell online.
QuickBooks Mobile Apps
QuickBooks has apps for both Android and iOS, and they can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, respectively. Only features available in Online Simple Start are available in the app version. So, at the time of writing, customers on the Essentials, Plus, and Advanced plans will not be able to access their additional features from the mobile versions of their installations. Additionally, the mobile versions can be used to access multiple accounts. Those who want to make and process payments directly through their mobile devices can do so with the Mobile Card Reader. Customers can create invoices directly through the app.
QuickBooks Customer Support
Do you need to contact the QuickBooks customer support team? Intuit maintains a comprehensive online troubleshooting section designed to help users resolve their own issues before contacting the team.
In case users are unable to resolve their question through the documentation or community forum, they can initiate a support discussion via live chat or phone. The live chat option can be accessed from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. m. to 6 p.m. m. Monday through Friday (PT) and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. m. to 3 p.m. m. Saturdays. The phone line can be accessed Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. m. to 6 p.m. m. and is closed on weekends.
Bottom Line
QuickBooks is a powerful invoicing and accounting system preferred by small businesses around the world. Its features include contractor expense tracking, project profitability reporting, and receipt capture via direct upload and email. There is no free tier, but paying users can choose the premium tier that best suits their needs.